Analysis of Social Issues

Background

The City of Columbia contracts for social services intended to address five (5) issue areas: Basic Needs and Emergency Services; Children, Youth and Families, Economic Opportunity, Mental Health and Independent Living. The City utilizes a multi-year RFP and purchase of service cycle staggered by issue area in 3 year increments as follows:

Year 1 – Basic Needs and Emergency Services

Year 2 – Children, Youth, and Families

Year 3 – Economic Opportunity, Independent Living, Mental Health

As a component of the strategic social services funding allocation process, the City conducts an analysis of each issue PRIOR to the issuance of the related social services RFP. The issue analysis is intended to facilitate a more informed and targeted approach to addressing social issues in the community. The issue analysis is used to develop targeted funding RFPs in order to strategically apply City resources and to evaluate progress and impact.

Goals

The goals of the issue analysis are to assist the City to:

Gain an understanding of the current social and economic conditions within the City of Columbia.

Identify unmet needs within issues/sub-issues and among populations/sub-populations.

Determine the scope of unmet needs.

Gain an understanding of the current assets/resources and services already being applied towards the issues/sub-issues and populations/sub-populations.

Identify gaps in services.

Prioritize needs within and across issues.

Identify best practices and evidence-based strategies to address prioritized needs.

Identify potential collaborative opportunities which could result in increased efficiency and efficacy of services.